American Life

American Life
Studio album by Madonna
Publication (s)	April 22, 2003
admission	2001-2003
Label (s)	Maverick • Warner
Format (s)	CD, download
Genre (s)	Electronica , pop , folk
Title (number)	11
running time	49:39
production	Madonna • Mirwais Ahmadzaï • Mark "Spike" stent
Studio (s)	Westlake Recording Studios ( West Hollywood , California) • Olympic Studios ( London , England)
chronology GHV2 (2001) American Life Remixed & Revisited (2003)
Single releases March 24, 2003 American Life July 3, 2003 Hollywood November 21, 2003 Nothing fails December 8, 2003 Love Profusion

American Life is Madonna's ninth studio album and her 15th CD released (including soundtracks and compilations). The artist sold 674,000 copies in the United States.

background

American Life is a consistent continuation of the last studio album Music , which is one of their greatest successes worldwide. The style is characterized by the progressive underground of the main producer Mirwais and also shows clear influences from his French comrades Daft Punk and Air . In the foreground, however, are Madonna's voice ( alienated with a vocoder ) and acoustic guitars, some of which Madonna played herself.

The lyrics deal primarily with Madonna's personal insights into her life as a superstar ( American Life , Nobody Knows Me , I'm So Stupid , Easy Ride ) and her religious views ( Nothing Fails , X-Static Process ), shaped by the Kabbalah which not only fans and critics took up very critical and her accused as a missionary -.

In early 2003, the video for the first single American Life should be released. At this point in the third Iraq war, there was massive anti-war sentiment worldwide - with the exception of the USA. Madonna (who meanwhile lived with her family in Great Britain) produced a massive statement against the war as a music video: Iraqi children on a catwalk, American bombers and explosions in the background - at the end a George W. Bush double who hit himself with a hand grenade Lights cigar. The video was successful worldwide (in Germany alone, VIVA broadcast it twice every hour) - but was withdrawn one day later and replaced by a harmless one. Madonna: “I saw how much the Texan country band Dixie Chicks suffered after the musicians said they were ashamed to come from the same state as President Bush. They became hated women in America. I didn't want to expose my two children to this situation. It would also have been devastating for the career of my husband, the filmmaker Guy Ritchie. "

America became indignant and has since called Madonna "un-American". After serious threats, she moved her main residence to England. From then on, their albums and singles were boycotted by US radio stations - which is still noticeable in their chart positions there today.

Although the album received benevolent reviews, it is considered Madonna's biggest flop - it only sold five million copies - the previous album brought it to 15 million. Overall, it was considered too unspectacular and the promotion was completely unsuccessful ( Che Guevara look of the cover, the first single American Life not suitable for radio, the second video made more headlines than Samuel Bourdin plagiarism, no video was made for the third single and for the last video the computer template of an Estée Lauder commercial was used. Ironically, Hollywood was Madonna's first single that was no longer played by US radio stations - in the song she criticized it: “Music stations always play the same songs . I'm bored with the concept of right and wrong ". ("Radio stations always play the same songs. I get bored with the concept of right and wrong.")

Only the remixes in the clubs were successful: Seven singles made it into the Billboard “Hot Dance Music / Club Play Charts”. Despite the low chart success, Madonna was still able to set a record with this album: never before have so many singles from one album made it into the club charts. But the remix album Remixed & Revisited , which was quickly followed up , also went largely unnoticed. With Die Another Day it contains one of their big hits. The theme song of the film James Bond 007 - Die Another Day is the best-selling in the James Bond series and appeared for the first time on the corresponding soundtrack.

Track list

No.	title	Songwriter	production	length
1.	American Life	Madonna • Mirwais Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:58
2.	Hollywood	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:24
3.	I'm so stupid	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï • Mark "Spike" stent (add.)	4:09
4th	Love Profusion	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	3:38
5.	Nobody Knows Me	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:39
6th	Nothing fails	Madonna • Guy Sigsworth • Jem Griffiths	Madonna • Ahmadzaï • Stent (add.)	4:49
7th	intervention	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:54
8th.	X-Static Process	Madonna • Stuart Price	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	3:50
9.	Mother and Father	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:33
10.	Die Another Day	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	4:38
11.	Easy ride	Madonna • Monte Pittman	Madonna • Ahmadzaï	5:07
Overall length:				49:39

Chart placements

album

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	1 (20 weeks)	20th
Austria (Ö3)	1 (20 weeks)	20th
Switzerland (IFPI)	1 (23 weeks)	23
United Kingdom (OCC)	1 (20 weeks)	20th
United States (Billboard)	1 (14 weeks)	14th

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2002	Die Another Day American Life	DE4 (14 weeks) DE	AT2 (14 weeks) AT	CH4 (19 weeks) CH	UK3 (18 weeks) UK	US8 (17 weeks) US	First published: October 22, 2002 Sales: + 235,000; Video: tractor
2003	American Life American Life	DE10 (9 weeks) DE	AT7 (11 weeks) AT	CH1 (13 weeks) CH	UK2 (19 weeks) UK	US37 1 (8 weeks) US	First published: April 8, 2003 Sales: + 285,000; Video: Jonas Åkerlund
	Hollywood American Life	DE21 (9 weeks) DE	AT34 (9 weeks) AT	CH15 (13 weeks) CH	UK2 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 14, 2003 Video: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
	Nothing Fails American Life	DE36 (8 weeks) DE	AT51 (8 weeks) AT	CH41 (10 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 26, 2003
	Love Profusion American Life	-	-	CH31 (11 weeks) CH	UK11 (6 weeks) UK	-	First published: December 8, 2003 Video: Luc Besson

• ¹ In the USA, after the boycott of 2003 (she expressed herself critical of the Third Iraq War and George W. Bush), many US radio stations no longer play Madonna's singles and can for the most part only be sold and downloaded in place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
• The remix by Mother and Father made it to number nine on the US “Billboard Hot Dance Music / Club Play Charts”. It is included exclusively on the album by remixer Peter Rauhofer Rauhofer Live @ The Roxy 4 .
• The promo single Nobody Knows Me made it to number four on the US “Billboard Hot Dance Music / Club Play Charts”.

Web links

• Official music video for Die Another Day on YouTube
• American Life's official music video on YouTube

swell

1. ↑ http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/20401/chart-watch-extra-what-a-turkey-the-25-worst-selling-1-albums
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US